Richard D. Obenshain
(1936-1978) never held public office in Virginia, but he laid
the foundations for the Republican successes in statewide and
legislative elections during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1972 he
became chairman of the state Republican Party and began
rebuilding its political organization, enabling large numbers of
Republicans for the first time to win election to the General
Assembly. Obenshain died in an airplane crash in August 1978
shortly after winning his party's nomination for the United
States Senate. His legacy was a strengthened Republican Party at
all levels in the state. Increased political activism by
conservative religious leaders in Virginia drew many additional
voters into politics and further strengthened the party that
Obenshain had reinvigorated. When he became state party chairman
in 1972 there were 24 Republicans in the 100-member House of
Delegates and 6 in the 40-member Virginia Senate; in 2000
Republicans hold all three statewide elective offices, and there
are 52 in the House and 21 in the Senate.